


Costumes: a Halloween Drabble

by ObsessedtwibrarianOTB



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Blackwater, Drabble, F/M, Multi-Chapter Drabble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 07:44:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6414964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObsessedtwibrarianOTB/pseuds/ObsessedtwibrarianOTB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake and Leah discuss what they're wearing to the pack's Halloween party. But the party is just the beginning. Will their emotional armor survive the night?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Costumes

**1\. Costumes**

“You going to the Halloween party?” Leah asked.

I nodded. “You?”

“Yep, wouldn’t miss it.”

“What’s your costume?” As I waited for her answer, I stared at her profile, mesmerized by the flames shadow-dancing across her features. _She’s beautiful,_ I thought, and then was immediately shocked. Where had that come from?? I instinctively glanced across the bonfire at Sam, even though he couldn’t hear my thoughts, and never would again. He was hugged up with Emily and looked pretty damned happy to be there.

“I’m going as a princess.”

The sarcastic snort slipped out before I could stop it.

“You got a problem with that?” she snapped, her eyes flashing.

I raised both palms in the universal sign of surrender, eyes wide and grinning. “Hey, I come in peace!”

There was a tiny smile, just for an instant, and then it was gone.  “Let me tell you something about women, Jake. Inside every strong woman there’s a princess. When life gets overwhelming, we just want someone to step in and protect us and make everything all better.”

“I had no idea,” I said, stunned at her revelation. That was good to know, especially since protection was one of my main strengths.

“So, what’s your costume? I picture you as a corny zombie, for some reason,” she said, smirking.

It had been Seth’s idea to go as the walking dead, and I’d wholeheartedly agreed. We’d bought a ton of makeup and fake rotten teeth, ripped our old clothes and smeared them with dirt. We’d been practicing our zombie-moaning and foot-dragging all week. But, suddenly, zombies seemed a little over-rated.

“I’m going as a knight,” I answered.

One of her eyebrows rose up in typical Leah fashion. “A knight,” she repeated, sounding skeptical.

“Well, I figured if you’re going as a princess, the pack is going to tear you to shreds,” I said, chuckling. “You’re going to need some protection from the teasing.”  She’d just gotten through saying women wanted to be protected, so why was she frowning?  “And…I have a really big sword,” I added, grinning.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously, the frown deepened. “Jacob Black, are you flirting with me?”

I barked a laugh. “No! I really _do_  have a big sword. It’s stashed in the storage building with all my other old toys.”

She didn’t laugh, she just studied me for entirely too long. I wondered what was going through her mind, but she said nothing. Leah only seemed to talk when you wanted her to shut up, not the other way around.

“Do you want to go together?” I asked hesitantly. “As Princess Leah and Sir Jacob of La Push?”

She answered without even glancing across the fire at Sam and Emily, which made me very happy. Hopefully, she was finally over all of that.

“Big swords are my weakness. Therefore, I would love to accompany you, Sir Jacob of La Push.”

 _Oh, yeah._ Leah Clearwater was definitely flirting with me, and I liked that idea a lot.


	2. Armor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout from the disastrous Halloween party...

**2\. Armor**

“What the hell was I thinking?”  

Leah stomped through the woods ahead of me, pounding the dead leaves underfoot into pulverized mulch. A gnarled branch reached up from the forest floor and latched onto the hem of her princess gown. She violently yanked the dress out of its twisted claws and then, for good measure, kicked the dead tree trunk it was attached to.

“Fucking chauvinistic Neanderthal pigs!” she snarled viciously.

“Yeah, my sword is going to need a good sharpening tomorrow.”

She whirled around in fury. “You think this is funny??!”

I held up my hands and backed off a few steps. “Hey, I wasn’t the one who decided to have an Oprah moment on Halloween.”

Her mouth dropped open. “An Oprah moment??”

I was really messing this up with my big mouth. I dropped my hands and sighed. “Sorry. I just meant that there are some things we can’t trust other people with, like who we really are inside. Some things you can only share with one person, not the whole world.”

She deflated; all the brave defiance left with the slump of her shoulders. “I was trying to prove a point,” she said in a small, defeated voice. “That strong women aren’t just harping, whiny bitches, that there’s more to us than that.”

I really wanted to grab her up and hold her, tell her everything was going to be all right. “I know, and you proved that point very beautifully, too. But, you can’t expect a bunch of Neanderthal chauvinistic wolves to appreciate the effort. They don’t know you.”

She snorted. “And you do?”

I nodded. “I’ve heard your thoughts. I actually paid attention when you believed no one was listening.”

“Really?” She crossed her arms over her chest and sneered. “I didn’t realize one could hear the outside world from the inside of Bella’s ass, which is where your head has been since she rolled into town.”

 _Ouch._ That stung, but I deserved it. To say that I’d been preoccupied for the past few months would have been a mammoth understatement.  “Look, I’ve walked in your shoes, Leah. I’ve loved someone who didn’t love me back. I know what that feels like. It fucking hurts. It hurts so damned bad that you don’t know if you’re even going to survive it. So yeah, I understand where the bad-ass princess act is coming from. We all have our armor…”

Mine was crumbling right in front of her, and I let it. I didn’t pull it tighter around me to try and hide my hurt from her. I let that thick plate of protection fall away. I let the only person I felt I could trust see inside.

Her eyes softened. She stepped closer. I saw unshed tears glistening in her eyes when she laid her palm tenderly on my cheek.  “I’m sorry,” she said, sighing. “I was being a bitch… _again.”_

“No you weren’t.” I shook my head. “I’m at the point where I’m pretty much done with girls who don’t know their own mind. You do, and you always say exactly what you mean. I’m really beginning to like that, especially after what I’ve been through with Bella. It’s very…attractive.”

She frowned and studied me with narrowed eyes. “Attractive? Really??”

I nodded.

I saw doubt in her eyes, confusion in her expression. I wondered what she saw in mine. What did I look like to her without my armor? A weak Alpha? An even weaker man? But as usual, Leah never talked when you wanted her to. She just continued to stare at me, and God only knew what was going through her mind.  As the silence dragged on it started to get that uncomfortable feel to it. What was it about awkward silences that compelled people to just open their mouths and let stupid shit come out??

“I really want to kiss you right now.”

And what do you know? That awkward silence was gone…

 

 


	3. Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A connection comes to light...

_Or so I thought..._

“Why?”

“Why what?” I asked.

“Why do you want to kiss me?”

I resisted the urge to stare at the ground and dig the toe of my boot into the sodden leaves like an awkward preteen. How was I supposed to answer without sounding like a total dickhead?  “Because…” I hesitated. I really needed more time to come up with a better answer than the one that was hanging off the tip of my tongue. “…you’re beautiful.”

She jabbed her hands on her hips and glared. “That’s the only reason??”

I ground my teeth together. All I wanted to do was kiss her, for fuck’s sake. What was with all the damned questions? “Since my head is finally out of Bella’s ass, maybe I’m getting a look at the scenery now, and I like what I see.”

“The scenery. Right,” she said, her voice dripping with derision. She shook her head. “You knights are all alike. You live, eat and breathe by your swords. That’s all you think about.”

My temper ignited. “Well, just forget it then! I don’t even want to kiss you anymore! Just fucking forget I even mentioned it!” I turned and stalked off, leaving my angry beta, masquerading as a damsel-in-distress, fuming in the darkness behind me.

“Jake!”

I ignored her and pushed on toward home. I longed to just burst out of my skin and leave my humiliation behind me in the darkness, but then she’d be inside my head, listening to all my doubts and insecurities. I’d already felt the sting of rejection with Bella; I had no desire to go through that shit again.

“Jake!” she shouted again. When I refused to acknowledge her, she burst in front of me, blocking my way and forcing me to stop. She pushed at a strand of hair that had escaped her princess hair-do and sighed. “I’m sorry. I mean…thank you. I really appreciate the compliment. It was sweet. But I need more than that from a guy, you know?”

No. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud.

“I need respect,” she said softly, shyly. “I want a man who appreciates me for more than just my outward appearance.”

I raked a hand through my hair in frustration. “So just because I want to kiss you, that means I don’t appreciate you in other ways?? That’s bullshit, Leah. You’re my beta.”

“I pushed myself on you. You only made me your beta to shut me up,” she snapped.

I nodded. “That’s partly true, I’ll admit that. But you’ve earned your place in my pack. You’re strong, physically and emotionally. You follow orders, no matter how repugnant they are. You’re loyal —you have no idea how relieved I was when you refused to go back across the treaty line. You’re dependable; I can count on you to be there. And after everything I’ve been through with Bella, I value that kind of loyalty more than you can know. I don’t take it for granted anymore. If you left my pack tomorrow, I don’t know what the hell I would do. Seth is a great guy and all, but he’s—”

She stopped my words with her mouth. Warm. Soft. Insistent. My body responded, which wasn’t surprising. It was the sheer, raw emotion of it that shocked the hell out of me.

_This feels right…_

 


	4. Rejection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because you want to do something, doesn't mean you should.

_What the fuck are you doing??_ My mind was screaming at me to stop, even as my body was luxuriating in the blood-rush, and the promise of some really hot sex.

 _Is this just Jacob Black wanting to get laid after Bella’s ego-crushing rejection?_ No. Well…maybe. No! Absolutely not!! But even if it was, what the hell was wrong with that? _She obviously wants it. She kissed me first this time, for fuck’s sake!_

 _If you sleep with her, it’s going to ruin everything._ No, it’s not. I’m her Alpha and she will still be my Beta afterwards. Some good sex is not going to change that.

I didn’t know it was possible for a conscience to laugh hysterically, but mine was doing just that. Whatever the source of that inner voice, it was right, and I knew it. If I slept with Leah, everything would change, and I wasn’t sure I was emotionally ready to deal with that.

 _Fuck you_! I spat back at my prissy, know-it-all inner voice, in a fit of juvenile teenage rebellion. _Why can’t I, just for ONE FUCKING NIGHT, be a man-whore like Paul and have some damned fun for once??_

 _Because you’re an Alpha now,_ the voice calmly responded. _Because you have responsibilities now. Because the cohesion of your pack is more important than your physical needs._

That calmly-delivered rational explanation of the reality of my situation snapped me back to the moment; I couldn’t argue with the truth. I broke the contact between our mouths, but I couldn’t yet bring myself to completely move away from her. I rested my forehead against hers, her heated breath mixing with mine as we silently contemplated what had just happened.

 _Oh, to be Edward Cullen, if only for a moment._ I never in a million years thought I would ever envy him, but that mind-eavesdropping trick of his would have really come in handy. If I could only know what was going through Leah’s mind, then maybe I could say the right thing for once. Maybe, for the first time in my life, I could manage to not completely demolish a relationship before it even started.

She brushed her lips against mine again, letting me know she wanted more. I only moved away a tiny bit, but it was enough to cause her to flinch and step back away from me, an expression of shock, hurt and disbelief on her face.

“I’m sorry, Leah,” I whispered. “I can’t do this.”

The slap was so powerful it snapped my head to the side, the tendons stretching painfully in my neck.

“You bastard!” she shouted. “You’re the one who started this!!”

My face was stinging like hell, but I was certain my pain was nothing compared to hers. “I know. You’re right. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have started it. I’m sorry, I really am.”

“Fuck you,” she snarled. “Fuck _ALL_ of you!”

I felt the heat of her fury as she barged past me and disappeared into the woods. I stood there, naked and defenseless without my emotional armor, wondering how I was going to fix the fallout from this. Had I just damaged my pack beyond repair?

I knew she would burst out of her skin as soon as she could, seeking the comfort of her wolf. I knew what she was feeling at that moment, that sting of rejection that felt like a thousands swords slicing your soul to pieces. I also knew that she would try to outrun her hurt, but she wouldn’t succeed. _Been there, done that._

_I didn’t sleep with her, and it still ruined everything. What do you have to say about that??_

For once, that know-it-all conscience of mine had absolutely nothing to say.

 


End file.
